What the story behind the picture that moved our hearts on May Day?

This genuine picture drew the attention of many people on social networks on this May Day: a doctor showed a baby who was born minutes earlier, and together with the new born, he held a Cuban flag.

CubaSi looked for the doctor with this so genuine, powerful idea to celebrate this International Working Day and so we found Dr. Fernando Lao Soayero, Fisrt Degree specialist in gynecology and obstetrics, Perinatologist at the Guillermo Luis Fernandez Baquero General Teaching Hospital, in Moa municipality, Holguin province.

He, 58 years old of which 32 have been devoted to medicine, states he loves the Revolution, and he was worried not to conclude his night duty at the hospital on time to attend the parade and “as it was going to be a special May Day, where no Revolution supporter could stay at home, I wanted to do something since very early in the morning, which could guarantee my involvement, at least from social networks.”

“The truth is that I am always looking to find a way to show our greatest treasure and simultaneously, show my support when media warfare against us aims to show exactly the opposite.”

Luckily, his replacement arrived in time and the doctor could also join the parade from the hospital, with the feeling of having a new life in his hands.

It is just that “fighting for my homeland fascinates me as much as my job.”

I asked him for his personal reasons and he does not hesitate: “my own existence is my reason. I had a childhood and youth full of joy and opportunities thanks to the Revolution, and I met, thanks to my father, how Cuba was before 1959…”

He said he was a leader in his childhood years. He had also responsibilities at FEEM (Federation of High School Students) and FEU (Federation of University Students). He was member of the Youth Communist League since he was 15 years old, and member of the Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) since he was 29. “Fidel fascinated me with his speeches and all the social works carried out by the Revolution, from the Literacy Campaign to the great idea of the training of health care personnel. Fidel said that we had built a Revolution greater than ourselves. And I firmly believe so.”

With 32 years of experience and so many births assisted under his belt, Dr. Lao is constantly amazed by every birth:

“I cannot describe it in words the satisfaction, that first cry of the new born never stops touching your heart, just like the happiness of the mother, what you feel is extraordinary. You don't get used to it even though it's been many years, it always makes you throbbing with excitement.”

And perhaps this doctor from Holguin will meet, in another May Day parade, in five or ten years, with the little girl whom he helped to be born. She may be riding on the shoulders of a relative, and he will unknowingly march alongside her, still marked by that unique feeling of that last birth.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff